23 October 2009

In Praise of Hoaxsters on Meatless Friday

I read an insightful column by Butler Shaffer called "In Praise of Hoaxsters". It begins by referencing two hoaxes that angered the national media lately-- the "Balloon Boy" and the "Fake U.S. Chamber of Commerce" press conference, and then uses them as a launching point for a justified criticism of the national news-gathering and reporting morass.

In Praise of Hoaxstersby Butler ShafferThe politically correct, the self-righteously indignant, and other defenders of the established order, have been clucking furiously in the direction of the Colorado family whose six-year old son was reportedly set adrift in a box with a helium-filled balloon. The mainstream media – always on the lookout for stories that deflect popular attention away from events of genuine substance – gobbled it up like kids at an ice-cream party. For hours, thoughtful men and women who had given up worrying over the fate of a teen-aged girl on Aruba, now had an alternative outlet for their ersatz feelings.

Hours later, however, the young lad was found safely hiding away at home. Government officials immediately suspected the entire affair was the product of an elaborate hoax, perpetrated by the parents for the purpose of promoting themselves into the world of so-called "reality-show" fame. The county sheriff began spinning out all kinds of possible charges to file against the parents, as well as bringing the government’s stiff-necked child protective services agency in for further harassment. Because the father had called the Federal Aviation Administration to report the incident, possible "lying to the federal government" charges were also threatened. (On the latter point, I have often wondered why it is considered a felony for individuals to lie to the government, but quite acceptable for government officials to lie to the public! But I am getting ahead of my story.)

[...]

In speaking of the possibility that the parents were using the event as a way of self-promotion, the sheriff referred to so-called "reality-show" television as something that blurs "the line between entertainment and news." As newspapers, news magazines, and broadcasters, wring their collective hands over the continuing decline of subscribers and viewers, they might consider the role they have long played in this line-blurring.

I am amused at the reaction of government officials who feign indignation – and threaten criminal prosecution – over individuals or groups who engage in harmless hoaxes to promote their interests, but who pip not a squeak when the state – with the support of its paid propagandists (AKA as the mainstream media) – actively fosters hoaxes that serve its ends. Why does this self-righteousness not rise to the level of demands for the criminal prosecution of those who fabricated – and continue to operate – that deadliest of recent hoaxes, the so-called "war on terror?" How many people died – or were even injured – in the helium-balloon affair? How many more innocent souls – including children who have not been brought under the alleged "protection" of "child protective services" – have died in the course of conducting this murderous campaign grounded in lies, forgeries, and the shrill shrieking of vice-presidents and cabinet heads?

...I am reminded of the role played by the "joker" in medieval society. He was a bright person, whose general irreverence for established interests allowed others to observe and to laugh at the absurdities present in the society in which they lived. Such influences fostered the kind of questioning perspective that helps to define a mature civilization.

...those who imagine themselves to be the purveyors of "the good, the true, and the beautiful," often speak from hidden agendas, including their ambitions for power over others. Just as an occasional germ or virus is useful to give our immune systems a health-generating workout, the exposure of hoaxes can serve to keep our minds in a skeptical, life-defending state of awareness.

One of the more powerful literary images relating to this inquiry is to be found at the conclusion of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, when the ruling class of pigs are meeting in the farm house with the local businessmen to discuss such matters as the selling of the older horses to the glue factory (a wonderful metaphor for modern corporate-statism). The other animals watch through the window and, as the story ends, a heightened sense of awareness is seen in their eyes. The Internet and other innovations in technology are providing windows through which members of a long-gulled public are beginning to have the scales fall from their eyes. Hoaxes have a way of mirroring – and making more evident – the contradictions and falsities of what the established order requires us to believe to be true. This is why the factual reporting of events (see, e.g., Jon Stewart) takes the place of satire in an increasingly absurd world. Or, as G.K. Chesterton expressed it: "We have had no good comic operas of late, because the real world has been more comic than any possible opera."

This is why I literally broke out in laughter when, following the revelation of the environmentalists’ hoax at the National Press Club, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reminded viewers – along with, perhaps, the alleged news reporter at his channel? – of the importance of "checking and double-checking" the facts upon which a story is based. I wonder if that sense of skepticism will accompany future reports, by CNN, of such matters as the unprovoked wars against the Iraqi and Afghan people; wars that CNN joined with other mainstream media outlets to promote despite all the official state-serving lies that underlay both. I wonder, as well, whether the reporting of future hoaxes – disguised as "press conferences" – will contain the caveat of doubt aroused by the Yes Men, as well as Al Gore’s global-warming film that earned him an Oscar from an industry that specializes in fiction and fantasy.

I have my doubts as to whether Wolf’s future reports on the alleged threats posed by climate change will be prefaced by any reminders of the hoax perpetrated at the National Press Club. Nor do I expect to hear Wolf tell us how his "checking and double-checking" of facts led him to discover the words of, perhaps, the leading guru of the "climate change" lobby, Stephen Schneider. After his 1980 conversion from the "coming ice age" denomination to that of "global warming," Schneider told the faithful that "we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have."

The political establishment does not like having its deceptions and contrived "threats" revealed to the rest of us animals, and will do what it can to close the blinds on its windows, lest we peer in on the rackets being played at our expense. When such exposures do occur, political and media voices will be quick to shift to damage control in order to minimize any broad awareness of the nature of the state. "Victims" will become "wrongdoers"; "Cassandras" will be transformed into "co-conspirators." Through it all, our would-be rulers will continue to insist upon the inviolability of their monopoly on the definitions of "truth" and will go after those who – like the parents of the six-year-old boy in Colorado as well as other uncertified hoaxsters – bring discredit upon the efforts of the state to keep us in that state of what Goethe called "active ignorance."

As long as their efforts impose no injury upon others, I regard hoaxsters as essential to efforts to help restore sanity to an insane world.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Sometimes the media is a joke. The balloon boy definitely took us all for a ride.

Sadly, no one will go to jail for concocting the absolute lies that led the US into a "pre-emptive" war that in no way, shape or form posed any direct threat to the US. The vast majority of the Bush administration's cabinet worked for oil companies before jumping into the White House, and amazingly, found a reason to invade the country with the second largest supply of oil. Everyone in the Bush administration has admitted that there were no WMD. "Ooops, we lied. Sorry about the over 100,000 dead Iraqi children, women and men. Sorry about the hundreds of thousands of maimed citizens, and millions of citizens who will live the rest of their life with Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome. And oops, sorry - but future generations will have to pay the $2 trillion this war will ultimately cost - we're too busy giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans to care about our children's future."

The whole lead up to the war in Iraq is the biggest media scam ever. IF ONLY we listened to Pope John Paul II. If only.

A Day That Will Live in Glory

Pray for the Four Cardinals: Burke, Caffarra, Meiser and Brandmuller

“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day."